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New York City’s Hidden Subway Station

Deep in the belly of New York’s subway system, a beautiful untouched station resides that has been forgotten for years with only a limited few knowing of its existence. Stunning decoration with tall tiled arches, brass fixtures and skylights run across the entire curve of the station, almost a miniature imitation of Grand Central Station… But it sounds like something straight out of Harry Potter, right?

It was opened in 1904, with the hope of making it the crowning glory of the New York subway system in elegant architecture and a place for commemorative plaques to honour the work that had resulted in such a successful underground mass transit system. It was to be the original southern terminus of the first ‘Manhattan Main Line’; however the station was closed and boarded up in 1945. The gem of the underground began gathering dust, forgotten by the general public, as passengers were forced off at the Brooklyn Bridge Stop before the train continued on to the terminus to make its turnaround.

The reason for its closure was that newer longer cars were required to match the demand of passengers that passed through the system. But as the stations tracks were severely curved, a dangerous gap between the train doors and the platform was formed making it an unsafe area. This combined with the fact that only about 600 people used it, resulted in its closure with only mythical plans of turning it into a transit museum. But this was never followed through.

However, now you don’t have to take my word that the secret City Hall Station exists, as the 6 Train will now allow the passengers who have been enlightened with the knowledge of its whereabouts to stay on the train during its turnaround and see the Station. You won’t be able to get off, but you’ll be taken for a slow tour of the platform and see what a beauty it was in its heyday!

And if that isn’t enough, The Underbelly Project has turned it into a kind-of off-limits art gallery. They are a group of street artists who have painted the walls of the unattractive concrete areas with their art in a spooky art exhibition that will be witnessed only by urban explorers who prowl the deep train system at night and Metropolitan Transportation Authority workers.

Over a hundred murals have been accumulated over time by graffiti artists, namely PAC and Workhorse (infamous NYC graffitists), who discovered the bare walls and invited others to add their art.

But if you want to go and view these art works, you will most definitely run the high risk of being arrested as venturing the tunnels is both highly illegal and dangerous! I’ll just stick to seeing the photographs as I’m pretty sure my search for art would turn into a horror story down in the black tunnels… or I’d get hit by a train.

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Sophie Saint was one of the original travelettes, from 2009 – 2017. After fleeing the UK with ink barely dry on her graduation certificate, she traversed the world with a backpack and spent a few years living in Melbourne – one of her favourite cities in the world.

She finally returned to the UK after a few years where she now whiles time away zipping off for European escapes, crocheting and daydreaming of owning her own hostel somewhere hot to live out eternal summers. See what she’s up to over on her blog saintsonaplane.com and instagram: @saintsonaplane

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Thee were plans to open the station to the public in September 2001. The reason the station is not open to the public is that it is directly under city hall, and after 9/11 there were concerns it would be used by terrorists.

They need to pour concrete over the unused tracks, wall up the ends, and turn that into a beautiful dance night club, with lighting set up high above the leaded glass ceiling to illuminate the space... It would be epic :o)

Breathtaking! I can't help thinking of tht 1980's cult classic 'Beauty & The Beast'. The magical underground living quarters were all based on old forgotten stations like this one. I must agree with so many others; it's foolish not to open this to the public. But, one step at a time; at least they've begun letting it be seen. Peraps one day we'll be able to actually enter and walk there. Gorgeous legacy!

Reminiscent of the fantastic Metro stations in Moscow - some stations have chandeliers. Many have heroic Soviet art - farm and factory workers with a vision of a glorious socialist state. Quite a contrast to the looks on the faces of the people actually USING the subway system!

You can go there, right now. Just stay on the No. 6 train at Brooklyn Bridge. It'll go through this City Hall station and turn around to become a northbound No. 6 train.

Up until a couple years ago the conductor or a cop would kick you off, but they no longer seem to mind it. It's quite an attraction. Many years ago, I "forgot" to get off at Brooklyn Bridge, and I told the cop who came through the cars that I missed my stop. He must have heard this story a zillion times, chewed me out a bit, then went on his way through the train.

Really nice, too bad it can be converted into a bar or restaurant or something where people could spend time. The architectural details are wonderful. I even like the grafitti art except, I'd prefer to not have any rodent art... Of course the tracks would have to go and I guess that might interfere with the number 6 line a bit...

Wow! That is absolutely beautiful! A shame that the knowledge of that station and it's craftmanship has been forgotten for such a long time. Hopefully, they will turn it into something the public WANTS to notice and expierience this one.

This is such a crock......there is no such station that looks like this. The grafitti, maybe but this wonderous station doesn't exist...except the cleaned up & restored Grand Central Station, which is marvelous.

Wow! Very interesting and some delightful photos. This reminds me of the mysterious old (now closed) stations that we have in London, UK. There are regular tours that go in the old mysterious (supposedly "haunted") stations. Very creepy.

That seems to happen a lot people forget. Just like with the empire state building. During world war 2 the lights on the top of the empire state building were turned off so that enemy planes wouldn't target the building an after the war was over ,they forgot about turning the lights back on it until a janitor discovered a closet an started cleaning it out and found the switch. That happened in 1970's talk about forgetting

Crazy that it is just right there below the city, and most of us walking around have no idea. Besides Harry Potter, it also totally reminds me of something from one of the Ghostbusters or Batman movies. Next time I am in NYC, I'm definitely going to stay on that 6 train to see it in person.